How to mount a beadlock wheel

How to mount a beadlock wheel

How to mount a beadlock wheel

1. Before we start mounting these up, let's look at what makes the Roadkill Racing 9302 different than others on the market. The deep well in the middle of the wheel allows for easy installation at home - without a tire machine. Also notice the large wheel bead seat for holding the inner bead onto the wheel.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

2. We have seen wheels and lock rings in the past with knurling and surface treatments, but the double helix pattern on the Roadkill 9302 is designed to not only hold the bead in place in multiple directions, but also to keep them from leaking air.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

3. Before you send in the hate mail because you cannot find AMP tires with this coloured logo, Editor Irons was bored and had a set of Tire Penz in the shop. As you can see… an art project was born. They seem to hold up well on the streets, but rock and dirt will rub the paint off eventually. We did all five tires with two pens and still had plenty to spare.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

How to mount a beadlock wheel

5. Starting with a warm tire can be the difference between premature balding and successfully mounting your new shoes. Our luscious locks and warm shop on “Beadlock Day” is a product of doing this a few times. Trust us, trying to mount a set of tires at home in sub zero temps is enough to make a saint swear.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

6. Finding out that you forgot to install the valve stems AFTER the tire is on is, well, uh, just don’t do it. We prefer non-solid core stems in case they encounter trail debris that could rip the stem out. Notice how the stem opening is hidden between the wheel spokes? Nice touch Dirty Life.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

7. A liberal coating of dish soap using a rag on the back bead of the wheel will assist in slipping the tire over the front bead. Try as we may, “single malt” scented dish soap eludes us. Choose carefully, my friends.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

How to mount a beadlock wheel

9. With the tire positioned as shown, you want to “pounce” on the tire with your knees at the 8 and 4 o’clock position and your hands at the top of the tire. If you’re “too experienced in life” or “older than dirt” and cannot do this, a set of tire spoons work as well.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

10. Look for the yellow dot on the tires and align it with the valve stem; doing this places the light portion of the tire and the heavy portion of the wheel in alignment, which should mean minimal balancing issues. For us, we don’t bother balancing our beadlock-equipped vehicles as most outings involve us taking out large chunks of metal and/or rubber, negating balancing them in the first place.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

How to mount a beadlock wheel

14. Hand tighten all the bolts to start, then, in a criss-cross pattern, tighten the bolts up in five ft-lb increments to spec. For us, 15 Ft-lbs using a top shelf torque wrench does the trick. It takes time, but please avoid any high torque impact tools as this will offset the clamping of the bead and cause an out of round condition. No matter how you do this, plan on spending the better part of 30 minutes tightening all the bolts slowly and evenly, multiple times, per wheel.

How to mount a beadlock wheel

15. With the bolts tight, air the tire up to seat the back bead. Check for any leaks, and go over the bolt torques one last time. Remember that a beadlock wheel is a maintenance item and you should be checking bolt torques after every run just in case they start to back out. With that done - Let’s Go Wheelin!

For the newcomer to the off-roading world, the premise of lowering a tire's pressure for more traction seems like a recipe for disaster. In truth, they would not be completely incorrect as plenty can go wrong if you do not take caution when letting air out of your tires. You could easily slip a tire bead off the wheel, or puncture a sidewall as they are now more exposed, and you do lose a small amount of valuable ground clearance when airing down, so we’ll admit it’s a not a perfect world.

Even with all those nagging drawbacks in mind, there’s nothing like rolling up a trail with tire pressures in the single digits and the rubber enveloping the trail while producing spectacular traction. The added footprint size when airing down also equates to increased floatation, and for those of us in a leaf sprung rig… added comfort. But the lower you go with pressure, the greater the chance of the aforementioned disasters, and remounting a tire on the trail a dozen times gets draining, literally. There is an answer, and it goes by the name of “Beadlock”.

Originally installed on military equipment to help aid in tire changes during combat situations, the beadlock has migrated throughout professional auto racing from drag, to dirt track, and of course, to our favourite, off road racing. By physically clamping one or both tire bead bundles securely to the wheels, your chance of losing a tire bead at an inopportune time is greatly mitigated. With tires clamped and dirt or snow covered trails ahead, it is not uncommon to see tires with less than one psi stay on their wheels, and produce amazing traction while laughing off side loading forces that would put other wheel and tire setups in the “Grave Danger” category.

Having the ability to run at these ultra low tire pressures does need to be done with caution. Running at high speeds with the sidewalls flexing like a yoga instructor, creates heat, and LOTS of it. This can delaminate tire carcasses in a hurry, so it’s imperative that you air up before hitting the street for the drive home. There is also a point of no return; meaning that just because you can go into the sub 5 PSI range, doesn’t mean you will see any additional traction at those levels. We always try to only go as low as needed for the circumstances. This will take some trial and error, but nothing a good tire gauge and some practice won’t solve.

Some of the more common questions we get asked are “how do you mount them?” and “are they legal on city streets?" We’ll deal with the legal elephant now and tell you to check your provincial laws regarding beadlock wheels, and also ask the manufacturer. There are plenty of different designs and styles on the market to choose from, all with different design and use guidelines. Some will be “for off-road racing only” and other are designed for daily use on any city street. As for mounting a tire to a standard beadlock, you’re in the right place as we mount up Dirty Life’s 9302 (Roadkill Racing) single side beadlock in a 17x9 size with 4.58” of backspacing.

The 9302 was designed by Dirty Life Wheels from the ground up as a beadlock wheel, not a wheel that was altered from a standard casting. The super beefy 17x9 units come in a multitude of bolt patterns, ours is a 5 by 5.5, and blanks are stocked across Canada for easy and fast ordering.

Down to the nuts and bolts of the beadlock. OK, only bolts, and there are 24 of them holding the thick aluminum locking ring onto the wheel. The wheel is drilled and tapped in 48 places for 5/16 plated grade 8 bolts and washers, which is a nice touch in case you booger up a thread. We’ve tried but haven’t managed to wreck any yet, and we doubt we will.

Cadmium plated grade 8 hardware is supplied with every 9302 wheel, but can also be found at any bolt supply house – no more custom order inserts or obscure washers only found in unicorn droppings. We find that with the abuse we put a set of beadlocks through, we need to replace the hardware every time we wear out a set of tires. The lock rings do have a countersunk location for the bolt heads to sit in, and this keeps them from shearing off on the trail, but not from being ground down on rock faces.

With new hoops in hand, we headed out to the shop for a few hours of grunting and swearing as we put on a set of AMP Terrain Grippers, to suffer whatever abuse we can send their way. The 315/70R17 All Terrain design comes with an E load rating and a compliant 2-ply sidewall rating, which should make for a nice daily drive tire. When combining the Terrain Grippers with the 9032 Beadlock, the combination should make for some excellent grip on the trail. The tires also come with the “mountain snowflake” embossed on the sidewall, which means we won’t have to swap them out once the snow flies. Follow along as we mount up a wheel and tire combination at home, and stay tuned for a full review of the AMP Terrain Grippers once we get them broken in.